Seniors expected to outlive their driver's licences by six to 10 years

Arthur Pratchett sits in his home in Garden Bay, Sechelt. Pratchett failed a driving test in March and had his licence revoked in April. He lives in a remote area where it's necessary to have access to a car or driver.Photo by
Arlen Redekop

Arthur Pratchett has driven tanks and armoured cars for the British Army, a fire engine in England and transit buses in Toronto.

So when the 88-year-old lost his driver’s licence earlier this year after failing a road test, he was shocked.

“In actual fact, it’s devastating,” Pratchett says.

He and his 83-year-old wife, Irene, live in Garden Bay, a little community 37 kilometres north of Sechelt on the Sunshine Coast. A general store and a pub are the nearest amenities and there is no bus service to get from their home to town.

Since his licence was revoked, Pratchett relies mostly on his wife — who doesn’t like to drive — to get around.

“You’re calling on somebody else all the time,” he says. “It is a most inconvenient way of doing things.”

They’ve lived in their home since 1987, but now the Pratchetts plan to move into Sechelt so they can be within a short walk, bus or taxi ride of where they need to go.

A court petition to get his licence back has been unsuccessful and Pratchett plans to take another test.

Pratchett’s situation is one example of how dependent people are on vehicles, a trend that becomes particularly troublesome with an aging population. And it’s a situation that exists in every community, rural or urban.

According to projections, the Lower Mainland’s over-65 population will more than double in the next 20 years. Studies show those seniors will outlive their driver’s licences by about six to 10 years.

“It’s so important that seniors are mobile to get their groceries, just to socialize, do all the things that will keep them healthy.”

When they are unable to get around seniors can become socially isolated, which affects their mental and physical health.

In the 2006 report Aging Well in British Columbia, the Premier’s Council on Aging and Seniors’ Issues recommended “that the B.C. government proactively address the transportation needs of older people” to help reshape neighbourhoods to make it easier for older people to thrive and remain in their homes as they age.

The transportation issues seniors face depend on where they live and how they get around.

“The issue being faced by seniors more and more is, a lot of them are aging in places that require access to a car and ability to drive one,” says Lawrence Frank, Bombardier Chair in Sustainable Transportation at the University of B.C.

The key, says Frank, is to encourage seniors to move to more walkable communities before a traumatic event — such as losing a licence or the death of a partner — forces the decision.

Those communities include sidewalks that won’t trip people up if they use walkers or wheelchairs, and amenities nearby.

“We now face a tremendous number of aging baby boomers,” says Frank. “We really have a lot of planning and a lot of hard work to do now to really proactively offset or reverse some of the negative trends that are in place.”

David Dunne, director of road safety strategies for the BCAA Traffic Safety Foundation, says there is an overdependence on cars, and mature drivers need to speak up.

“People are not prepared for driving retirement,” he says. “There’s a tremendous amount of denial.”

Dunne says there need to be alternatives for those who cannot drive — relying on family and friends or options that aren’t convenient does not work — and government policies need to change to make them possible.

“We know that there’s a dearth of really senior-friendly alternatives and we need to fill out the spectrum of alternatives.”

Holly Tuokko, director of the University of Victoria’s Centre on Aging, says some alternatives are there — co-ordination is what’s missing.

“The challenge for many seniors is to get where they need to go to run their errands in a timely fashion,” she says.

“Many people don’t know what services are available or are hesitant to use them. If services are integrated, people will know what method of transportation to use, and when.

“There’s still, and will probably always be, some kind of gap, but we are moving toward filling as many as possible,” Tuokko says.

STAR will act as a business hub, providing support and information to agencies that want to provide transportation services to seniors.

The goal is to provide a solution to a “highly fragmented, under-financed and uneven set of transportation services for seniors in B.C.”

The model will be tested in the coming months and changed based on what seniors need and want.

TransLink and B.C. Transit have worked to make the mass transit system accessible for seniors, including providing extra training for drivers and attendants and expanding programs for those unfamiliar with transit.

TransLink also has the Access Transit Secretariat, which works with a users’ advisory committee that offers opinions and feedback.

In the future, says spokesman Ken Hardie, TransLink hopes to make better use of taxis and expand the system.

However, many seniors remain afraid to use transit for a number of issues including personal safety and fear of falling. Some are also unable to use conventional transit because of mobility limitations.

HandyDART has tried to fill that gap, but the premier’s council report expressed concerns that the service will not be able to meet demand.

For example, a large percentage of HandyDART users are going to kidney dialysis, which means other mobility-challenged seniors may be left out.

“We know from the trends that our region is going to age substantially, people are going to want to age in place ... There’ll be a continuous challenge to meet those needs off to the future,” says Hardie.

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